In this globalized world, individuals and countries that invest heavily in education increasingly benefit socially and economically from that choice. Among the 30 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries with the largest expansion of college education over the last decades, most still see rising earnings differentials for college graduates, suggesting that an increase in knowledge workers does not necessarily lead to a decrease in their pay, as is the case for low-skilled workers. In addition to education, another factor in the globalization process is technological development, but this, too, depends on education, not just because tomorrow's knowledge workers and innovators require high levels of education, but also because a highly educated workforce is a pre-requisite for adopting and absorbing new technologies and increasing productivity. Together, learned skills and technology have flattened the world such that all work that can be digitized, automated, and outsourced can now be done by the most effective and competitive individuals, enterprises, or countries, wherever they are. The author explores the United States education system through the prism of international comparisons. The author discusses the performance of the United States in the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006 and describes some features found from a number of expert studies that have reviewed some of the education systems with high performance standards.